In the mobile society in which we live, there are many situations in which it is inconvenient for an individual, while driving a vehicle such as an automobile, truck, boat, bicycle, or even merely walking, to stop for a drink of water or other cool refreshment when thirsty.
Various drinking apparatus have been proposed to permit the driver of a vehicle to drink water or other liquid while driving. One such arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,153, dated Oct. 8, 1974, wherein a container having flexible walls and a conduit extending into the container is removably clamped to the frame of a bicycle. While this drinking apparatus is adequate for its intended purpose, the removal and replacement of the container are, however, distracting and tends to interfere with the driver's view of the road.
To overcome this disadvantage, a drinking apparatus of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,812, dated June 20, 1978, has been proposed wherein an extensible drinking straw is provided which communicates with a water bottle clamped to a bicycle frame. While this apparatus is also adequate for its intended purpose, its construction and arrangement is such that the drinking apparatus becomes an integral part of the bicycle and therefore, is not portable to the extent that it can be readily used while driving other vehicles.
After considerable research and experimentation, the portable liquid cooler of the present invention has been devised to overcome the disadvantages experienced with prior portable liquid coolers and comprises essentially a container mounted within a housing in spaced relationship therewith and having insulation in the space between the outer wall surface of the container and the inner wall surface of the housing. A plug is threadably mounted in the top walls of the housing and container and is provided with a depending integral tube through which a flexible plastic tubing is adapted to extend into the container, and a removable closure is provided for closing the plug when the flexible tubing is not in place. A receptacle for containing a refrigerant is threadably mounted in the top walls of the housing and container, and a fitting is provided on the top wall of the housing for temporarily holding the removable closure when the flexible tubing has been inserted through the plug. The housing is provided with a hollow handle adapted to store the flexible tubing when not in use. The bottom wall of the liquid container is sloped in a direction toward the end of the tubing so that the liquid in the container will remain in the vicinity of the lower end of the tubing even when the contents of the container are low.
By the construction and arrangement of the portable liquid cooler of the present invention, the cooler may be carried and placed in a convenient location in a vehicle and the flexible plastic tubing can be inserted into the container and used as a straw for drawing the cool liquid therefrom.